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Magus' Contest History
Who is Magus? God himself honors but one video game character, and one video game character only. That character is Magus, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Magus is simply that damned amazing. When Chrono Trigger first begins, you are led to believe that Magus is the main villain of the game. As such, the party uses their ability to travel all over every stretch of time in an effort to find a way to defeat Magus. After a lot of searching, they party soon realizes that they need the Masamune in order to take him down. After another ordeal simply to find and repair the legendary sword, everyone finally goes into Magus's castle with the sole intent of beating the hell out of him. Little did the party know that in their efforts to defeat Magus, they were essentially taking down a would-be ally. After the long, arduous battle with the supposed fiend, Magus revealed that he was only using those around him to gain power; the power necessary to summon, and hopefully battle, Lavos himself. A giant wormhole soon opened up, and everyone was thrown into different points in time. Luckily for Magus, he was thrown back into the era in which he was born: 12000 BC, the time of Zeal. Magus used his knowledge of the past to pass off as a powerful oracle, and he was quickly able to work his way up into the most powerful ranks of the mighty kingdom of Zeal. The party soon makes their way to the time of 12000 BC as well, and even though they never encounter Magus, they do encounter the "oracle" a number of times. After more events pass, virtually every major character in the game somehow meets in front of Lavos within the Ocean Palace. Magus's guise of being an oracle ends here, but something else of major importance ends here as well. After the events of the Ocean Palace, most parties would give up. But not the party in Chrono Trigger. In their defense, they are truly a symbol of a collective group never giving up no matter the cost. But the cost soon became a choice that would very well be between life and death. The party encounters Magus on the North Cape with the choice to fight him for his actions in the beginning of the game, or they can simply let him go after having learned of Magus's true past. Many people choose to battle Magus at this point, but those who let him live are granted the reward of Magus himself joining the party in their efforts to take down Lavos. With Magus in the party, they are given one of the most powerful allies in the game, but they are also dealing with a character who has no regrets about ever saying what is on his mind. But considering how stupid some of the characters act in the game at times, a character telling them the truth about themselves is a nice breath of fresh air. Magus is one of the single deepest characters ever conceived, and he has everything necessary to do so. He has the looks, he has the attitude, and he has a deep, well thought out script that only enhances his legend. He also has a knack for staring any danger in the face and laughing at it. The story of Magus that the party members see for themselves is deep in and of itself, but there is also a giant backstory that goes along with Magus being the way he is. Magus is a brilliant character, and not only is he easily the deepest character in Chrono Trigger, but he can make a good case for being the deepest character of all time. In reality, Magus is a fruitbat. "If history is to change, let it change! If the world is to perish, let it perish! If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh! I'm coming, Lavos!" - Janus Zeal Magus's Contest History Win-Loss Record: 5-8 Summer 2003 Contest - North Division - 13 Seed * Northern Round 1 --- Defeated (4) Sam Fisher, 60598 66.25% - 30866 33.75% * Northern Quarterfinal --- Defeated (12) Ganondorf, 55179 50.30% - 54529 49.70% * Northern Semifinal --- Lost to (1) Link, 38747 34.93% - 72188 65.07% * Extrapolated Strength --- 9th Place 33.80% Summer 2004 Contest - Hyrule Division - 6 Seed * Hyrule Round 1 --- Defeated (11) Luca Blight, 57128 81.04% - 13367 18.96% * Hyrule Quarterfinal --- Lost to (3) Crono, 23539 30.22% - 54361 69.78% * Extrapolated Strength --- 9th Place 32.57% The single biggest snub in the Summer 2002 Contest was Magus, so it comes as no surprise that the newcomer who performed the best of all newcomers in the Summer 2003 Contest was Magus himself. Magus wasn't a character on par with the elites like many would have liked, but him managing to finish in the Top 10 in the Xsts two years in a row proves beyond any doubt that Magus has enough of a fanbase to hold his own in these contests. And even with Magus being adjusted accordingly in the SFF Adjusted Xsts this year, it is still very possible that he still managed to suffer a small shot to his overall strength with the massive SFF that appeared in the bracket. Magus may not be able to beat the likes of Link or Crono, but it's not a stretch to see him being on the level of Sonic or Solid Snake. In a balanced bracket, Magus is an absolute force to the characters that hover around his level in strength, and we can only hope that we get to see what Magus is truly capable of in future contests. Summer 2005 Contest - Devil Division - 3 Seed * Devil Round 1 --- Lost to (6) Knuckles, 50153 49.14% - 51909 50.86% * Extrapolated Strength --- 20th Place 29.26% "In a balanced bracket, Magus is an absolute force to the characters that hover around his level in strength, and we can only hope that we get to see what Magus is truly capable of in future contests." Oh he showed us what he was capable of. No worries there. There is overrated, and then there is Magus. After Summer 2003, Magus's match against Link had him in the top ten in the stats. He was stuck behind SFF (supposedly) in 2004 and was simply given the same value. What did this all lead to? When the Summer 2005 bracket was released, it was widely believed that the Devil Division was Magus's to waltz through, and that only Squall would pose any real threat to him. As such, virtually everyone picked Magus to win the entire division before his inevitable rematch loss to Crono. But Magus's little run through a balanced bracket in which he would show his true strength was over before it even began, as Knuckles not only proved that Magus was overrated, but outright beat him. And even had Magus held on to defeat Knuckles, Squall would have likely beat the hell out of him anyway. Lord only knows what in the world happened in 2003 that caused Magus to become so overrated in the first place, but the real Magus has begun to show. The funniest thing of all is that due to being such a heavy favorite, Magus might still be overrated in the stats. Is it truly safe to pick Magus to take down the likes of a Luigi, Auron, or Master Chief? Summer 2007 Contest - Division 3 - First Group * Division 3 Round 1 --- 1st place, 39354 30.87% - Phoenix Wright, 30548 23.96% - Bomberman, 30467 23.90% - Crash Bandicoot, 27107 21.26% * Division 3 Round 2 --- 3rd place, 23700 17.80% - Mario, 62062 46.60% - Big Boss, 33146 24.89% - Phoenix Wright, 14263 10.71% Has anyone taken a larger fall than Magus? It's getting harder and harder to believe he once put up 35% on Link once upon a time. 2005 proved he had been overrated, but people were still surprised by what he did. Somehow, he looked even worse. He struggled to break 30% on a fourpack that featured four characters who are low midcarder/fodder level, at best. He trailed Phoenix Wright for a full hour to start that match. He lost updates to Crash Bandicoot. Then, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Magus got smoked by Big Boss. To be fair, he had his Naked Snake picture, but even so, you wouldn't expect their strengths to be that far apart. Chrono Trigger as a whole took a big hit in this contest, and it's getting harder and harder to pick Magus with any confidence in a match against a solid midcarder. Who's the strongest person he can beat now? I don't even know. Summer 2008 Contest - Division 8 - First Group * Division 8 Round 1 --- 3rd place, 32683 24.8% - Sonic the Hedgehog, 48531 36.83% - Sandbag, 32924 24.98% - Commander Shepard, 17631 13.38% Remember when people thought that Sonic vs. Magus was an upset special waiting to happen? Unfortunately for Magus, in 2008, the debate was not Magus vs. Sonic, it was Magus vs. Sandbag. Magus managed to get a 2000+ vote lead, but with Chrono Trigger becoming worse and worse during the day vote, he managed to choke it all away to Sandbag during the ASV. Worse yet, the boards went down during the second night vote, possibly preventing the organization of any last hour comebacks like we have seen with Frog and Crono. At this point, Chrono Trigger DS had better sell a boat load of copies for Magus to regain some of the respect he once had in the Character Battles. Winter 2010 Contest - Hyrule Division - 9 Seed * Hyrule Round 1 --- Lost to (8) Alucard, 27037 41.48% - 38150 58.52% * Extrapolated Strength --- 58th Place 23.40% Apparently, a first-round loss to Magus wasn't part of The Plan for Alucard, and it was obvious enough that bracketmakers had favored Alucard in this match. With Link as a second-round opponent, a win here could have given a more concrete measure as to how far Magus has fallen since 2003, but the results are more than proof enough that Magus's popularity has not withstood the test of time. Summer 2013 Contest - Division 6 - 9 Seed * Division 6 Round 1 --- 1st place, 13474 47.83% - (10) Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, 9551 33.90% - (19) Jade Curtiss, 5148 18.27% * Division 6 Round 2 --- 3rd place, 4029 12.51% - (6) Pikachu, 15165 47.07% - (1) Crono, 13024 40.42% With the performances Magus has put out recently there was a lot of people that were nervous about taking him over anyone with strength. Whether Otacon fit the definition of character with strength was debatable, but a lot of people went with the upset because it was the not-Magus option. However, Magus showed that he still had some strength and had no issue winning the match. His reward for winning his first match in three contests was a rematch against Crono. As expected he suffered a lot of SFF and while it is debatable that Magus cost Crono the match I think we could all agree that without Magus Crono would have least made the match close. Fall 2018 Contest - Division 6 - 6 Seed * Division 6 Round 1 --- Lost to (11) Vincent Valentine, 14802 48.11% - 15968 51.89% SBAllen likes to pander to Board 8 in his brackets, and 2018 had this in a matchup between two Square fan favorites once thought to be potential powerhouses but eventually shown to not be all that. Magus had his first taste in facing someone from Final Fantasy VII in Vincent Valentine, who back in 2005 won the Devil Devision that many thought was Magus to take (but then he tanked to Knuckles), and two years later was upsetting the Noble Nine once he beat Crono. Still, the high seed and Chrono Trigger's respectable performance in the 2015 games contest meant Magus still had a shot, right? But aside from taking the lead at times during the first two hours, the match was all Magus playing catch-up and falling flat. Never count on him making an impact in these contests ever again. Category:Contest Histories